Republicans relish extended Hagel confirmation fight

Republicans have gained another 12 days in which to beat up on Chuck Hagel. And even though they may not ultimately stop him from taking over the Pentagon, they relished the opportunity to keep trying.

“The fight goes on,” said conservative editor Bill Kristol, who marshaled opposition research, media buys and op-eds against Hagel. Kristol vowed that he would “continue to work to convince a majority of senators of the undeniable truth that we can do much, much better than Mr. Hagel.”

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And one Republican aide promised the long Presidents’ Day recess would represent for Hagel “one more week of additional questions on top of the questions they refuse to answer.”

Just the same, Democrats said they remained confident they would finally make Hagel secretary of Defense when they try again on Feb. 26. In that sense, Thursday’s 58-40 vote to cut off Senate debate was as much an attempt to advance him as Potomac jiu-jitsu by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who moved it up from Friday knowing it would fail in a bid to get Republicans on the record blocking him. Sixty votes were needed to move the nomination forward.

Reid and the White House seized the opportunity to slam the GOP for what they called needless obstructionism that might prove dangerous given the appearance that the Defense Department would be headless. Its incumbent boss, Leon Panetta, was set to stay on until Hagel is finally confirmed, the Pentagon confirmed, but Panetta flew home to California on Thursday to help sell the narrative that Republicans were leaving his office in the E-Ring vacant.

“A clear majority in the United States Senate supports Senator Hagel’s confirmation, so today’s action runs against both the majority will of the Senate and our nation’s interest,” Carney said. “Allow this war hero an up or down vote, and let our troops have the Secretary of Defense they deserve.”

Republicans weren’t buying it – Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn said Reid had moved up the Hagel vote just “to get a story in the newspaper,” and he defended the validity of the sticking points over which Republicans had chosen to make their stand: Hagel’s financial disclosures and the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

Republicans said they needed to be confident Hagel hadn’t taken payments from “foreign sources,” and they said the White House owed them more detail about its actions in the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attack. Democrats fumed, arguing the issues were unconnected and that Hagel had satisfied the Senate Armed Services Committee’s disclosure requirements, but they could also not muster the 60 votes to break Republicans’ barricade.

The White House attempted to mollify at least two key Republican opponents, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, with a letter that explained that President Barack Obama had called his Libyan counterpart on the day after the attack, but it wasn’t enough.